most of you will have heard of this today [School choices]

[jonny.rainbow]

Absolutely. And everyone should have that choice.

Everyone can't have choice though, when the demand is higher than the places available at the "best schools".

 

[Man of Harveys]

Absolutely. And everyone should have that choice.

Am I missing something? I thought that everyone exercising exactly that choice - i.e. choosing to send their kids to the best school - is what's caused these problems in the first place. Shouldn't ALL schools be made to be good?

As for the faith, purlease: split them up for RE lessons (as they did at my primary school in Germany) but anything else is divisive.

 

[Starry]

Because if you supported your local school, and in turn the local parents became involved in their local school, the sense of community and standard of education would be increased.

Not to mention the environmental impact of having to drive your kids to school. The benefit of being able to walk, or take a local bus to school, and having neighbours who's kids go to the same school.

The standard of education at our local school is pretty high and I think the sense of community surrounding it is pretty strong, people come from outside this area to attend it. They always seem to do very well with fund-raising and events are always keenly supported, by us as well. Even though we chose to educate elsewhere.

It is still not a school that best meets my children (particularly my son) needs adequately nor our faith.

And I am glad we have the choice rather than being forced one way or the other.

 

[Starry]

Am I missing something? I thought that everyone exercising exactly that choice - i.e. choosing to send their kids to the best school - is what's caused these problems in the first place. Shouldn't ALL schools be made to be good?

As for the faith, purlease: split them up for RE lessons (as they did at my primary school in Germany) but anything else is divisive.

Quite. Which is why the poorer schools should be dragged up to scratch, schools should not keep being closed and merged etc. All schools should be good and performing and whatnot.

As for faith. Our children go to a school that practices our beliefs, our local school does not do that. Even if it did we probably would not use it anyway since it is not best suited to the needs of our children. I am fortunate to have the choice (that I wish every parent had!) and so long as I have that choice I will make what we believe to be the best choices for our children.

 

[tedebear]

The standard of education at our local school is pretty high and I think the sense of community surrounding it is pretty strong, people come from outside this area to attend it. They always seem to do very well with fund-raising and events are always keenly supported, by us as well. Even though we chose to educate elsewhere.

It is still not a school that best meets my children (particularly my son) needs adequately nor our faith.

And I am glad we have the choice rather than being forced one way or the other.

So why not send your child there and get involved in ensuring his needs are met? I'm not exactly sure what and why the needs of your son differ - are they sufficiently different to require schooling elsewhere? ie developmental difficulties - if thats the case then thats a different discussion all together, one of which I have no knowledge. Surely you cuold meet the needs of your faith schooling by Sunday school and after school activities.

 

[Ernest]

Bring back the birch

 

[Bozza]

Here in North Somerset you have to name 3 schools, in order of preference. You are guaranteed to get one of your three choices and, in most cases, your first choice.

We were lucky in that there are several decent primary schools locally and to find 3 was not a problem. We would have been slightly disappointed not to have got either our number 1 or 2 choice, but the 3rd choice is still a decent school. It's worth saying though, that we didn't have any 'faith' considerations to muddy these particular waters.

As it happens we got our first choice which is good and the whole application process was handled painlessly online.

 

[Starry]

So why not send your child there and get involved in ensuring his needs are met? I'm not exactly sure what and why the needs of your son differ - are they sufficiently different to require schooling elsewhere? ie developmental difficulties - if thats the case then thats a different discussion all together, one of which I have no knowledge. Surely you cuold meet the needs of your faith schooling by Sunday school and after school activities.

No, no developmental difficulties.

As for the faith thing, I've seen the way threads have gone on here in the past and am ducking out on that now! But we sent our children to the school we did because it best met their needs both academically and spiritually.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Quite. Which is why the poorer schools should be dragged up to scratch, schools should not keep being closed and merged etc.

As for faith. Our children go to a school that practices our beliefs, our local school does not do that. Even if it did we probably would not use it anyway since it is not best suited to the needs of our children. I am fortunate to have the choice (that I wish every parent had!) and so long as I have that choice I will make what we believe to be the best choices for our children.

forgive me Starry, but I do get the impression that you are not short of a bob or two and that probably means you have far better "choices" that some. being able to take your kids accross town in a 4x4 par exaple. A single mother with two kids living in Whitehawk does not have those oppertunities.

I am not saying that is your fault, far from it ( If we had the money at the time i would certainly have sent my kids to private school as I believe any help up the ladder is worth it), these days the myth of choice is just that for a huge proportion of the population

 

[Bozza]

It is still not a school that best meets my children (particularly my son) needs adequately nor our faith.

What would you do if the local school perfectly met your children's needs but didn't match up to your faith requirements, whereas the other school did not match your children's needs but did not match your faith requirements.

The answer may be obvious as you seem to be indicating that faith is not a 'need'.

 

[cjd]

Following several arguments and discussions in the last couple of months with W.S.C.C. Education Authority, I am wondering more and more, why we even bother to send our children to state schools at all.
I have been looking very seriously into home education, and the more I read and learn about it, the more I am inclined to take this option.

 

[Bozza]

But we sent our children to the school we did because it best met their needs both academically and spiritually.

Faith wasn't a need a few posts ago - it was a case of 'needs' and 'faith'.

 

[East Staffs Gull]

My first reaction was that the lottery system is madness.

However, thinking it through:

An area/city is perceived of as having good schools and bad schools. If you give everyone the choice, let's assume that most people will choose the good schools. So, you have a lottery. Every school then ends up with a cross-section of pupils. The standard of teachers in the different schools might still vary, possibly because better teachers have historically been attracted to the 'better' schools. However, if every school has a similar cross-section of employees, 'good' teachers might be less particular about where they teach. Schools might therefore all end up with similar standards of teachers. The end result might be a levelling out of school/education standards, with the consequence that getting children into the 'right' schools may cease to be such an issue.

Is this too idealistic?

 

[Uncle Buck]

Difficult this one as I never went to my local school until 6th form.

I do see where people are coming from saying that if the kids went to their local schools it could help improve the school by creating a sense of community, but in practise will that happen?

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Cheers - even Longhill?

Especially Longhill. That place is well on it's way to becoming the worst school in Brighton, especially with this decision - most of the Whitehawk kids will end up there now.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The particular problem that Brighton and Hove has is that schools were built in locations that aren't evenly spread throughout the city.

Encouraging students to attend the nearest school is all very well but, if everyone did that, some schools would fill up before ANYONE from certain parts of the city found a place ANYWHERE.

This means that there has to be some mechanism for ensuring that places are available on a fair basis for all.

Inevitably it's difficult to come up with the right system. And ANY change to the system is bound to lead to SOME people complaining that they are being unfairly treated.

What is wrong is to accuse the Education Authority of being motivated by either maliciousness or incompetence.

When they've sorted school admissions out, maybe they can turn their minds to the Albion's ticketing system and tell us how to balance the interests of season ticket holders, away members who rarely go, away members who go to all away games, people who buy a Withdean ticket on a match-by-match basis, people who live in Huddersfield and the guys in H-Block who are brilliant at getting behind the team when we are playing away, but a pain in the arse at home games.

The two questions are essentially the same.

 

[Gwylan]

My first reaction was that the lottery system is madness.

However, thinking it through:

An area/city is perceived of as having good schools and bad schools. If you give everyone the choice, let's assume that most people will choose the good schools. So, you have a lottery. Every school then ends up with a cross-section of pupils. The standard of teachers in the different schools might still vary, possibly because better teachers have historically been attracted to the 'better' schools. However, if every school has a similar cross-section of employees, 'good' teachers might be less particular about where they teach. Schools might therefore all end up with similar standards of teachers. The end result might be a levelling out of school/education standards, with the consequence that getting children into the 'right' schools may cease to be such an issue.

Is this too idealistic?

I think that a lottery would be a worthwhile idea but that's not what Brighton has implemented. It has allocated catchment areas for all schools and you can only apply for schools in your catchment areas - in most cases, just one school. In a lot of cases, the catchment area is the other side of the city.

If you live in a posh area, you have the choice of two schools: the two 'good' ones, thus perpetuating a middle class domination of the good schools.

As it stands, my kids would go to their fourth nearest school, involving two bus journeys. I'm not too fussed about though as in 8 years' time, the system is bound to change again (sigh).

 

[chip]

Following several arguments and discussions in the last couple of months with W.S.C.C. Education Authority, I am wondering more and more, why we even bother to send our children to state schools at all.
I have been looking very seriously into home education, and the more I read and learn about it, the more I am inclined to take this option.

I think all schools should be private and that there should be a voucher scheme to cover (some of) the cost. I would not send my children to a state school as they no longer have control over the children who are admitted to them or how and what they teach. However, school is only a small part of a childs educational process and I think that a large responsibility lies with the parents.

 

[Virgo's Haircut]

Is Stanley Deason/Marina High or whatever it's called still open?

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

So why not send your child there and get involved in ensuring his needs are met?

It is a fine sentiment. The problem with education is that you only get one shot at it - and understandably it is easier to select a school that meets existing needs that fight a battle that may not be won, or is won too late for your child. Tricky one.

Locally - it would be better for Kings Manor if all Shoreham parents send their kids there - in fact Steyning Grammar creams off a lot of able pupils from Shoreham - exaserbating issues at Kings Manor. That is just how it is.